I Think You Meant 'Bored' Games
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: Monopoly with Team S.I.T. Genius is more intense than it needs to be.


**Based off an actual PS1 Monopoly game that I own, but have never managed to beat because the AIs are too difficult. I mentioned it to Underdog Hero one day, wrote a story about it months ago, then left it in my notebook untouched for a while.**

** I don't know if the normal variation of Monopoly does this, but PS1! Monopoly allows you to auction estates you land on if they're unowned instead of outright buying them. This can get really annoying if you're playing with someone who enjoys making things difficult, since the bid increment for everything is $1... **

"Stop interfering with my business plans, Ali!"

It was only Monopoly, but Lee was as serious about this as he was everything else. Considering his family owned a huge enterprise in real life, and that he was already training to take it over, perhaps even _moreso_ – Lee had been studying the structures of businesses since birth, probably.

Ali, on the other hand, seemed to find more amusement in annoying Lee than he did in actually playing the game. (Chris didn't disagree with him, persay, but that didn't make it any less mean to laugh about it. And they were supposed to be friends now.)

Unsurprisingly, the game belonged to Ali – he had seemed like the kind of person who hated being bored from the beginning, and Chris's first impression had turned out to be right. They'd settled on Monopoly because Ali hadn't brought anything newer with him to Singapore's Institute of Technology, and Lee and Chris weren't huge gamers besides, meaning Monopoly was the only name they all recognized.

"It's not like it's my fault you didn't land on the Reading Railroad first! You really want it, then you can buy it on auction, Lee."

...Chris was beginning to suspect that Ali had only agreed because he knew how to be as annoying as possible, however. Any unowned estate was subject to auction if the person who landed on it was short of money or didn't want it, but...

Upon Ali's command, the screen changed and Monopoly's top-hat wearing mascot appeared holding a wooden hammer in hand, waiting for someone to place the first bid. There were only two controller ports on Ali's Playstation, but three of them. They'd drawn lots to see which of them could have their own and Lee had won, meaning that Chris and Ali were sharing.

"You want to bid?" Ali asked, offering the controller to him. He need only cast a glance at Lee to decide the best course of action; Lee who was glaring at the television screen, waiting impatiently for his turn, more into this game than Chris would have thought he could get... Lee who was going to have his hands full enough already just trying to put up with Ali.

"...I'm trying to finish my Composition homework."

He wasn't even here because he wanted to be, he was here because Ali and Lee had dragged him into it. Although Chris appreciated it more than he let on – knowing he could count as Lee and Ali as friends was comforting, he'd never had anything like that before – he worried about what would happen if his grades dropped because of this or what his parents would do if they found out.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then."

Chris has the pen in his hand and he really was trying to write the first draft of his Advanced Composition essay, but Lee and Ali's arguments were very distracting. Chris had written less than three sentences since they'd started this game, because his focus was constantly being pulled elsewhere.

Right now, it was Ali and Lee with their bidding war – on his last turn Ali had placed a $300 bid on top of the amount they'd already racked up for that stupid railroad, and Chris was at least able to remember that the price for any railroad on the board was at least a hundred dollars less than that even though he hadn't really been paying attention. Immediately, he knew that Ali's prank or attempt to annoy Lee or whatever he was doing was going to backfire.

"Come on, Lee, you wouldn't want your precious business plan to go to waste, would you?"

The mascot started pounding his hammer, signaling a possible end to the auction, but Ali's cheesy grin remained intact. Somehow, he was too over-confident to be anything other than oblivious to the situation he'd gotten himself into.

"You can have it," Lee replied. "I'll just write a _new_ business plan."

Exactly as Chris had thought it would turn out. The hammer pounded a final time and then the bored looking mascot tossed it in what he guessed was supposed to be a comical manner. Winner, Ali.

"What!?"

Technically "loser" in this case though.

"Chris, lend me a piece of paper!"

Chris was not going to point out the erroneous phrasing of that sentence. Using the word "lend" implied that Lee was eventually going to give it back, which he somehow doubted.

"I... You..."

Meanwhile, Ali seemed to be at a loss. No matter how many times he looked back and forth between the television screen and Lee, nothing changed the fact that Lee had used his own taunting against him and he was now much closer to bankruptcy.

"Oh, and a pencil, please. In reality, business is much more flexible than Ali seems to think. A good entrepreneur always has a back up plan or two and is always be prepared for something to go wrong."

Chris sighed and relented without another word, seeing as he wasn't going to get any work done anyway. They took a ten minute break allowing Lee to furiously scribble down his new plan while Ali complained and made a few failed attempts at peaking. Lee's turn in the game came right after Ali's, and this game wasn't going anywhere until he was finished writing. Lee had also taken his pencil though, meaning Chris has nothing else to do but sit and wait.

He wondered about whether or not he could win just by sitting and waiting long enough. Maybe he wouldn't even have to play the game, and he could win by default just through Ali and Lee's inability to stop arguing with each other?

**By the way, Lee learned better than to talk about his "business" plans. Chris tried asking for his paper back a few turns later, but it didn't help him because Lee wrote it in Chinese...**

**I have a half-written second chapter for the board game 'Life'. Maybe that's not a good idea though. I have no idea how entertaining it is to read about eleven(?) year old geniuses playing mundane games.**


End file.
